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Debbie Ridpath Ohi reads, writes and illustrates for young people. Every once in a while she shares new art, writing and reading resources; subscribe below. Browse the archives here.
I tweet about the craft and business of writing and illustrating at @inkyelbows. If you're interested in my art or other projects, please do visit DebbieOhi.com. Thanks for visiting! -- Debbie Ridpath Ohi
I've started working on a new picture book idea (YAY!). After I pick an idea I'm excited about, I start writing the text. Because I tend to think visually when writing, I also usually start paging out the manuscript and scribbling stick figure thumbnail sketches to help me figure out pacing.
A bit about my writing background, time management thoughts, how I'm squeezing in extra writing time every morning, apps I've found essential in helping me get into the daily writing habit.
I mentioned earlier that I'd be sharing any tips and tools I've been using to help me focus. One of the biggest discoveries I made last year is a service called AwayFind.
I used to check email obsessively throughout the day. At first it was because I didn't want to miss anything important that came in, but then I realized that even if I wasn't expecting anything super-urgent, I'd STILL regularly (as in at least a few times an hour, sometimes more often) check my email, no matter what else I was doing.
It was only after I started timing myself, seeing how long I could work before I checked email, that I had to admit I had a real problem. The action of frequent email-checking was so automatic that it happened without conscious effort, making it impossible for me to sustain focus for more than a very short time. Gah.
The brilliance of Awayfind: You can set up a list of email addresses and get alerts when mail arrives from any of them. You can even customize these alerts, to avoid getting alerted for groupmails, etc. I added agent's address, for example, as well as other important work-related contacts.
There are different pricing plans, but you can try out the Personal and Pro for 30 days for free. I ended up opting for the Pro account.
End result? I no longer feel compelled to check email so often, giving me more distraction-free time to focus.
I had never heard of the Groovboard until Thomas Borowski approached me via Twitter about reviewing his company's product. I generally don't do product reviews anymore but when I checked out the GroovBoard website, I was so intrigued that I asked Thomas a few questions and then said I'd be happy to check one out.
The GroovBoard functions as an lap desk and an iPad stand, with grooves for inserting your iPad and a Bluetooth keyboard (in flat mode, I found I didn't really need the keyboard groove; see above photo) as well as built-in holders for a stylus.
One of my first questions to Thomas: "How heavy is it?" The answer: Depending on the type of wood, a Groovboard can weigh between 1.7 to 2.6 lbs (800-1200 grams). I asked for the lightest type, so Thomas sent me the American walnut model:
My GroovBoard arrived from Germany in good condition, and I immediately tried it out to see what the weight was like:
Good news: I don't notice the weight at all. It's sturdy enough that I don't feel as if my iPad is going to tip it over, but it's not so heavy that the weight is uncomfortable. It's a bit too bulky for me to want to travel with it, but it's perfect for couch writing. According to the website, there is also a GroovBoard cushion available.
The GroovBoard also separates into two pieces in case you want to use it as an iPad stand/prop for watching movies or typing with or without the keyboard:
If you want to use it this way with a keyboard, just hang the keyboard from the upper groove:
That photo is from the GroovBoard site, by the way -- I don't wear nail polish. :-)
SUMMARY:
I've been using the GroovBoard for several weeks now, and I love it. So does my husband -- he plans to order one for himself. I keep my GroovBoard in the living room beside the couch. Some might also use it to do writing or watching movies in bed.
The model I reviewed (GroovBoard Walnut) costs $129 fro non-EU customers, plus shipping.
I've been working on more graphic illustration projects lately, and have been looking for a good brainstorming tool. Scrivener is good for text only but not as easy to use when it comes to combining images and text in different configurations on the fly. Corel Painter is great for pure illustration but not as good for illustration and text brainstorming.
I was prompted to download a 60-day free trial version of Zengobi's Curio when I found out that it was hooked with up Evernote. I love Evernote and love the idea of having everything I send to Evernote immediately available to me within Curio.
During my trial period, I'm going to try using Curio as a place to collect story seeds: clippings, thoughts, scribbles, photos, music -- pretty much anything that could come together to spark a story. When a story idea gels enough, I'll switch to Scrivener to work on the detailed outline and text. Though for picture books and graphic novel projects, who knows? Maybe Curio would be a good fit.
If you're curious to find out more about Curio:
Zengobi's Curio siteAngela Booth's review: "Curio, Writer's Gem"New York Times review of CurioTUAW review of Curio
I came across a "Protected by Copyscape" banner in a writer's blog and was curious enough to check out the service. From their About page:
Copyscape is dedicated to protecting your valuable content online. We provide the world's most powerful and most popular online plagiarism detection solutions, ranked #1 by independent tests. Copyscape's products are trusted by millions of website owners worldwide to check the originality of their new content, prevent duplicate content, and search for copies of existing content online.
Copyscape provides a free service for finding copies of your web pages online, as well as two more powerful professional solutions for preventing content theft and content fraud.
I've heard mixed reviews about this service -- has anyone used it? I tried it with pages from my site but didn't have much luck because of my site layout: because I have navigation sidebars that repeat throughout the site, Copyscape kept picking up that text so the results always gave me my own site pages. I was using the free service, however, so was only seeing the first 10 results.
Anyone else have luck using this service?
Thursday, October 13, 2016 at 9:17 AM
